From Learning to Earning: A Transnational Comparison of Transition Services. R&D Monograph 63.

Reubens, Beatrice G.

This study examines school-to-work transition services, encompassing educational and occupational information and guidance, as well as job placement, induction, and follow-up. Section 1 provides an introduction to the study and the study's historical background. Section 2 concerns the organizational goals and forms of transition services. It uses a cross-country framework which draws on the experiences of Western Europe, Canada, the U.S., and other countries. Greatest emphasis is placed on the age group which enters work after lower or upper secondary education, but much of the discussion is equally applicable to young people's transition to work from other settings, including the armed forces, corrective institutions, residential health-care facilities, or other special environments. Similarly, transitions from one level or type of education to another are covered. In section 3, orientation and information, the components of national information programs are discussed. Guidance and counseling development are observed in section 4, especially in several European countries. Section 5 examines initial placement: job-search and job-finding methods. It contains a discussion of how job-finding methods differ depending on such variables as sex, age and educational level, type of handicap, and minority status. Section 6 contains placement outcomes, and section 7 explains induction programs, both theoretical and practical. References conclude the study. (CT)